PROLOGUE - THE FIRST BREATH

She was five years old when they locked her up.
Not for what she did -
...but for what she was.

Born with black blood, Ariana Rhee was a quiet anomaly the Ark couldn't explain and didn't want to understand. Branded as dangerous, raised in shadows, and sent to Earth with the hundred delinquents, she should have been the first to die.

But the forest recognized her.

And so did they.

As Ariana is drawn into the brutal, ancient world of the Grounders - and under the watchful eye of the Commander - she begins to understand: she is not a mistake. She is a message. A weapon. A bridge between sky and soil.

The Ark called her a threat.
The Earth will know her as something else entirely.